1.5.6-Pilferingapples
Brick!club Les Miserables, 1.5.6 Father Fauchelevent In Which Nobody Delegates Around Here, I Swear I’ve seen other people have picked up on the UTTER LACK OF COOPERATION in this scene- it can’t be blamed on the usual French Villagers are Jerks and Corrupt Because Society Or Something problem, because ValMadeleine goes in for it too! Has no one heard of levers? Is it impossible to take some stuff off the cart? Why can’t all the bystanders grab an edge of the cart and lift? Granted, that would take some sort of coordinating force, so it’s surely a shame there’s not a WELL KNOWN AUTHORITY FIGURE STANDING RIGHT THERE. Who sent for a jack and then, I guess, cunningly waited to see his trap sprung?!? Which if it worked would make the accused even more of a hero? JAVERT WHAT ARE YOU DOING.Some devoted Javert fan explain this to me? I AM SURE THERE IS A REASON HELP ME FIND IT. Javert, buddy. I want to kind of like you instead of just thinking you’re interesting, but STARING AT MADELEINE WHILE A MAN IS CRUSHED TO DEATH IS NOT HELPING YOUR CAUSE ok. Of course once Madeleine does get things going it’s Stone Soup time and everything’s champs and aces, which just makes it even weirder that NO ONE DID THIS BEFORE WHY. At least one point gets scored for basic humanity in the face of this universal thoughtfail: however much he hated Madeleine, however much he wants to live, Fauchelevent still begs the mayor to save himself even at the cost of his own life being abandoned. Full marks, Fauchelevent; you make not actually have a reason for your grudge against our mysterious hero-mayor, but you know when life’s just gone SRS BSNS and you’re willing to take the hit for someone you don’t much like. I’m glad you get out of this okay. My only other thought here, really: THAT HORSE. HOW DID IT BREAK BOTH THIGHS. Have you seen horse bones?!? And the thigh? What did it trip on, a canyon?? Tomorrow: Everything keeps going really well! No, really. It’s getting creepy. The Other Shoe is going to a steel-toed stilleto workboot at this point and I don’t even know how that would WORK. Commentary Jdanielatllas I WANT A STEEL-TOED STILETTO WORKBOOT OH MY GOD (i read these despite not having a clue what’s going on in the book so that’s the kind of stuff i pick up on) Berrysphase What an interesting point about the villagers just standing around and wringing their hands and not taking any action! It just hit me like a two-by-four between the eyes (Hugolian metaphors: not subtle) — this is the Problem of Society in miniature. Nobody can rescue Fauchelevent alone, unless they’re super-exceptional like Jean Valjean, er, excuse me, M. Madeleine. Standing around and waiting for someone to fix it only works as long as you have someone exceptional who can fix it — and the villagers could have done something together, found a big board or something to be a lever and pushed it all together, only they didn’t think to act collectively. Are we supposed to think that people don’t entirely believe in their own agency, their responsibility toward their fellow human, or both? It seems a bit more symbolic than believable, but it’s a pretty effective symbol, and goodness knows I swallowed this completely until you pointed it out. (I was saving all my deliberate suspension of disbelief for “why yes, Valjean really is that strong.”) going off-line now ugh really /o\ ETA: see gargyphile's post, which makes the good point that the villagers did indeed try to take some action; I may be running away with symbolism today. Pilferingapples (reply to Berrysphase) I think the villagers’ behavior makes perfect sense, especially with Javert right there- the sensible, safe course of action has BEEN taken, it’s just that it won’t HELP. Fauchelevent’s going to die before it can take effect. And now there’s a definite authority on hand to deal out punishment if any more dramatic action causes trouble. Maybe the villagers would have tried for an informally coordinated effort without Javert there (although, Hugo villagers, so no), maybe it would have worked or maybe not; and maybe one of them alone would feel obligated to do more. But as a group, there’s a direct disincentive for them to act beyond what they’ve done. argh, diffusion of responsibility is a really complicated topic, but yeah, I thought the villagers were totally plausible here! Just not covering themselves in glory. :P (also, seriously, doesn’t Gargyphile do great posts? POST MORE, GARGYPHILE!) Gascon-en-exile Ooh ooh, everyone stand around and point and stare at the dying guy! They’re awfully calm about Fauchelevent’s imminent death too (and the FMA makes them even more so,at one point turning the religious oath “''Dame''!" into "It can’t be helped." for some reason). What I don’t understand about this scene now that I’ve reread it is that the order of events with Javert is reversed compared to the musical - Javert mentions the superhumanly strong convict before Madeleine lifts the cart, apparently with very minimal provocation but necessary anyway to make Madeleine hesitate out of paranoia. Why bring up that random anecdote, especially when talking to a guy we’ve already established Javert doesn’t particularly like? Why not, I don’t know, order some of the crowd to unload the cart or lift it up together instead of standing around as if waiting for either a divine miracle or technology (the jack) to save the day? Well, there’s something quasi-divine about Madeleine, I suppose, and Fauchelevent ends the chapter hailing him in religious terms. Lucky that he showed up, huh? Laissezferre Someone make a meta connection between the horse-about-to-die that Fantine pities and this horse-breaking-his-thigh. Hugo doesn’t like horses very much, does he? And then there’s the hundreds or thousand of horses falling in that crevice in Waterloo…